{"id":56,"date":"2022-11-15T21:28:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T02:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.nyu.edu\/dispatches\/?p=56"},"modified":"2022-11-15T21:28:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T02:28:00","slug":"el-rincon-guay-a-haven-for-lgbtq-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/2022\/11\/15\/el-rincon-guay-a-haven-for-lgbtq-immigrants\/","title":{"rendered":"El Rinc\u00f3n Guay: A Haven for LGBTQ+ Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Exterior
El Rinc\u00f3n Guay, a bar and restaurant in the Lavapies neighborhood [Credit: Briggs Luisa Negr\u00f3n]<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>By Briggs Luisa Negr\u00f3n<\/a><\/span>
\nNovember 15, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

For nine years, waiter and bartender Miguel Angel Lara Mu\u00f1oz has worked at bar El Rinc\u00f3n Guay, a hot spot in one of Madrid\u2019s most diverse neighborhoods, Lavapies. Six meters of rainbow flags cover the front door; inside, Mu\u00f1oz works at the bar, preparing coffees and Spanish dishes such as migas.  Stylish with a flowing black shirt and a blue streak in his dark black hair, he often dances to Shakira\u2019s \u201cse enamor\u00e9\u201d when he\u2019s not serving customers. One early October morning a customer holding a baby walks in and Mu\u00f1oz greets her with \u201cAy I love babies!\u201d He keeps a bowl of dog food and water outside the door for customers’ pets.<\/p>\n

The Lavapies neighborhood is home to gay bars that attract diverse clientele. \u201cIt\u2019s a melting pot and a salad bowl,\u201d said journalist Leah Pattem.  The bar, and several others in Lavapies, have become a community spot for LGBTQ immigrants and refugees to gather and share their stories, a respite from discrimination and difficulties accessing healthcare and job markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the people that are here,\u201d said immigrant and single mother of two Iris Vaz Viso in Spanish. \u201cIn this bar we are friends that have become a family. You make your own family\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberto Perez, the owner of el Rincon Guay, said that many customers are LGBTQ immigrants who fled from their home countries because of persecution due to their sexual orientation. \u201cMany people have come from outside with the aim of living in peace,\u201d said Perez in Spanish. \u201cIt is a very high percentage of people who fled for sexual reasons although statistics don\u2019t reflect this. It was not because of the economy or wars; it was for this hidden issue\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, there has been a significant growth in asylum petitions in the EU and Spain in general.  Petitions for asylum in the European Union have grown by 87% in 2022, with about 420,500 applications registered before July 19, according to El Pais<\/a>. Of this percentage, Spain specifically has about 62,300 applications, and is the country with the second most petitions for asylum in the EU, according to El Pais<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The process of obtaining asylum as an LGBTQ immigrant requires providing documents such as \u201creports from national and international human rights organizations, and\/or press articles that describe the types of harm the applicant has suffered or fears in the future in their country of origin,\u201d according to LGBTQ immigrant organization Kif Kif<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NYU Professor Aida Bueno, a Cuban refugee in Spain, noted that there have been some improvements in the system. \u201cIn the past, some tests violated the privacy of LGTBQ people and there have been some changes in European regulations in this regard to preserve the dignity of asylum seekers for this reason,\u201d she said, a sentiment which was echoed by immigrant organization CEAR<\/a>. CEAR applauded Spain for the increase in favorable petition outcomes, however they also hoped that this momentum would continue.<\/p>\n

Even after obtaining asylum, LGBTQ refugees still have difficulty gaining access to healthcare and jobs. They face discrimination, language barriers, and other cultural differences. While asylum seekers can start working six months after their asylum application is accepted, according to Asylum in Europe<\/a>, complications like transferring educational qualifications and past experience make finding jobs very difficult. On top of these difficulties in these sectors, discrimination and hate crimes are a big issue in Spain. Specifically, for LGBTQ+ immigrants, they face double discrimination, according to an article by EuroNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz noted one instance at the Rinc\u00f3n Guay during quarantine, anonymous callers would summon the police on the bar. The police would arrive to discover nothing was amiss. Mu\u00f1oz also subsequently overheard passersby saying, \u201cthat is the bar for faggots.\u201d  Though Perez also remembers moments where people have reacted negatively when he has kissed his partner, he also didn\u2019t let these incidents bother him.<\/p>\n

\u201c[This place] has changed people\u2019s minds,\u201d noted Perez, \u201conly haters are the ones who will accept absolutely nothing. Fortunately, the way that the rest of the world views the homosexual world since long ago is improving. There will always be haters.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Briggs Luisa Negr\u00f3n November 15, 2022 For nine years, waiter and bartender Miguel Angel Lara Mu\u00f1oz has worked at bar El Rinc\u00f3n Guay, a hot spot in one of Madrid\u2019s most diverse neighborhoods, Lavapies. Six meters of rainbow flags cover the front door; inside, Mu\u00f1oz works at the bar, preparing coffees and Spanish dishes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/dispatches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}